Published: Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 11:40 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 11:40 p.m.

CLEMSON — A mixed bag encompassing the good and the bad was pretty much how Clemson coach Dabo Swinney summed up his team’s final stadium scrimmage on Saturday, exactly two weeks away from the real deal, Aug. 30 at Georgia.

“There was a little bit of everything, straight across the board,” said Swinney of the scrimmage, which was closed to the media. “I was really pleased in that the defense set the tempo and felt they played a pretty clean scrimmage. There were not some of the mistakes we had defensively the other day. I thought we cleaned up a few of those issues. We still had a couple of competitive plays that we’re going to have to make defensively, where the offensive guy came down with the ball against two defenders.

“That’s a positive for our offensive guys, but in those competitive situations, we’ve got to win those battles defensively. Just because you’re there doesn’t mean the play is over. You’ve got to compete and either intercept it or knock it down, but overall defensively it was a really good day in a lot of areas.”

The play Swinney described was a touchdown catch by Dorman product Adam Humphries, with Swinney later calling it, “an ESPN SportsCenter catch, just an unbelievable play.”

Daniel Rodriguez caught two touchdown passes and one of the earlier big plays offensively was a 40-yard scoring run by D.J. Howard, during what Swinney called the running back’s best day of camp.

The coach also praised freshman receiver Artavis Scott for bouncing back with a good performance after “really hitting the wall on Wednesday.”

Swinney described the offensive line as still “mixing and matching” and added that several veterans such as Humphries were given limited reps in order to gain a better perspective on some of the younger guys.

“It was good,” starting quarterback Cole Stoudt said. “We started off a little slow and had two bad series, but we picked it up. The defense made some good plays out there and we’ve got some things we need to correct, but all in all a good day. We prepare going against one of the top defensive lines and top linebackers and everything, so we’ve got one of the best coming at us every day in practice and it’s going to help prepare us more and more for the games.”

Jadar Johnson and linebacker Tony Steward each returned interceptions for touchdowns, and when the team went into working on an overtime period, linebacker Stephone Anthony had a final interception that forced a second overtime.

“Just creating situations,” Swinney said. “We did some more two-minute, a little bit of open-field and short-yardage and a lot of special teams, and that continues to be a big emphasis for us getting a lot of that on film. We’re trying to evaluate as many guys as we can.”

“I think we’ve had a tough camp and I don’t know how we could’ve made it any tougher,” Swinney said. “Our guys compete and go against each other big-time. You spot the ball and they’re going to grind. I think we pushed them and we’ll get to that point now where we need to start bringing them back a little bit. We’ve had a good formula for success around here we’ve lived by and we’ll continue to do that.

“There’s not much else you can see in football that we haven’t done offensively or defensively. I think they’re well prepared as far as being exposed to a lot of things throughout camp, but now we really need to start getting dialed in on Georgia, and I know our guys are excited about that.”

<p>CLEMSON — A mixed bag encompassing the good and the bad was pretty much how Clemson coach Dabo Swinney summed up his team's final stadium scrimmage on Saturday, exactly two weeks away from the real deal, Aug. 30 at Georgia.</p><p>“There was a little bit of everything, straight across the board,” said Swinney of the scrimmage, which was closed to the media. “I was really pleased in that the defense set the tempo and felt they played a pretty clean scrimmage. There were not some of the mistakes we had defensively the other day. I thought we cleaned up a few of those issues. We still had a couple of competitive plays that we're going to have to make defensively, where the offensive guy came down with the ball against two defenders.</p><p>“That's a positive for our offensive guys, but in those competitive situations, we've got to win those battles defensively. Just because you're there doesn't mean the play is over. You've got to compete and either intercept it or knock it down, but overall defensively it was a really good day in a lot of areas.”</p><p>The play Swinney described was a touchdown catch by Dorman product Adam Humphries, with Swinney later calling it, “an ESPN SportsCenter catch, just an unbelievable play.”</p><p>Daniel Rodriguez caught two touchdown passes and one of the earlier big plays offensively was a 40-yard scoring run by D.J. Howard, during what Swinney called the running back's best day of camp.</p><p>The coach also praised freshman receiver Artavis Scott for bouncing back with a good performance after “really hitting the wall on Wednesday.” </p><p>Swinney described the offensive line as still “mixing and matching” and added that several veterans such as Humphries were given limited reps in order to gain a better perspective on some of the younger guys.</p><p>“It was good,” starting quarterback Cole Stoudt said. “We started off a little slow and had two bad series, but we picked it up. The defense made some good plays out there and we've got some things we need to correct, but all in all a good day. We prepare going against one of the top defensive lines and top linebackers and everything, so we've got one of the best coming at us every day in practice and it's going to help prepare us more and more for the games.”</p><p>Jadar Johnson and linebacker Tony Steward each returned interceptions for touchdowns, and when the team went into working on an overtime period, linebacker Stephone Anthony had a final interception that forced a second overtime.</p><p>“Just creating situations,” Swinney said. “We did some more two-minute, a little bit of open-field and short-yardage and a lot of special teams, and that continues to be a big emphasis for us getting a lot of that on film. We're trying to evaluate as many guys as we can.”</p><p>Tight ends Sam Cooper, Jordan Leggett and Stanton Seckinger joined receivers Charone Peake and Mike Williams and linebacker/safety Travis Blanks on the sideline with injuries.</p><p>“I think we've had a tough camp and I don't know how we could've made it any tougher,” Swinney said. “Our guys compete and go against each other big-time. You spot the ball and they're going to grind. I think we pushed them and we'll get to that point now where we need to start bringing them back a little bit. We've had a good formula for success around here we've lived by and we'll continue to do that.</p><p>“There's not much else you can see in football that we haven't done offensively or defensively. I think they're well prepared as far as being exposed to a lot of things throughout camp, but now we really need to start getting dialed in on Georgia, and I know our guys are excited about that.”</p>